


standing right there and I didn't even see you

by fenellaevangela



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Rescue Missions, Soulmates Share One Another's Pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-08 17:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11086107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fenellaevangela/pseuds/fenellaevangela
Summary: Mon-El begins to experience mysterious sensations that make him wonder if he really understands his new powers. It isn't until the team realizes Lena is missing that Mon-El's symptoms start to make sense - just not to Mon-El.





	standing right there and I didn't even see you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hecate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hecate/gifts).



“Hey buddy,” Mon-El said, slipping into the lab. Winn currently looked like he was elbows-deep in whatever code was scrolling across the screen in front of him but hey, a man had to eat. “You ready for lunch?”

“Just . . . let . . . me . . .” Winn typed for a few more moments before spinning his chair around in a flourish. “There! I’ve got a little time while that does a run-through. Want to hit the cafeteria?” 

“The DEO cafeteria is a travesty,” said Mon-El. It had been one thing when he’d thought it was a standard example of Earth fare; then, he simply hadn’t enjoyed it. Now it actively offended him. “I was thinking you, me, and that food truck near the park.”

Half way out of his chair, Winn hesitated. “The one with the hotdogs?”

“What? No.” Mon-El pulled a face. The one with the hotdogs was also the one where Kara had overheard a disturbing conversation between the owner and his condiment vendor. “The one with the tacos!”

“Now you’re speaking my language!” said Winn. He grabbed his bag and the two set off down the hall. Mon-El could almost taste the tacos already.

They hadn’t even reached the elevator when Mon-El thought he felt the ground beneath him wobble. He looked around, alarmed and ready for action, but no one else – not Winn walking next to him, the DEO lab techs in the rooms they were passing, or Alex getting off the very elevator they were walking towards – seemed to notice anything wrong. Just as Mon-El was wondering if it had been a trick of his mind, a wave of dizziness washed over him and he couldn’t stop himself from stumbling. He might have fallen if Winn hadn’t caught his elbow.

“Whoa, hey, are you all right?” Winn asked.

“Uh . . . yeah,” said Mon-El, still disoriented. He tried to stand up straight but the dizziness returned, his head spinning so badly he wasn’t sure which way was up.

A second pair of hands took a hold of his other arm. He couldn’t tell whose until he heard Alex ask him what was wrong and he realized he hadn’t noticed her come over.

“I’m just . . . I’m just dizzy,” he tried to explain, but he could hear his speech slurring. When Alex spoke again he couldn’t quite make out her words and then, despite the two people holding him up, he couldn’t stop himself from dropping to his knees. He only felt the impact as a distant thud, and then he didn’t feel anything at all. 

When Mon-El woke up it was to a bright light shining directly into his eyes. He blinked, trying to make out anything around him, and at his movement the light flicked away to reveal the DEO infirmary. Or its ceiling, anyway, which Mon-El was unfortunately familiar enough with to identify. Staring down at him was Winn, looking relieved, and Alex, who definitely didn’t look relieved. She looked concerned.

“How do you feel?” she asked.

Mon-El pushed himself up, testing his balance. When he didn’t feel dizzy at all he spun around to sit on the edge of the gurney. “I think I’m fine. What happened?” he asked.

“You fainted!” blurted Winn before Alex could say anything.

Alex rolled her eyes fondly. “I think he was asking me.”

“Right, of course,” said Winn, rubbing the back of his head in chagrin. 

Mon-El shot him a quick smile and turned to Alex. “So?”

She shrugged. “Unfortunately, what Winn said is true. From what I understand about Daxamite biology, there doesn’t seem to be anything else wrong with you. You just fainted.”

“Is that . . . well, normal? You did say ‘unfortunately’!” Mon-El pointed out.

“It can be normal, but it’s unexpected and that’s the problem,” Alex admitted. “Kara and Clark only experience episodes like this under extraordinary circumstances, but when it comes down to it we don’t have enough data on how your powers are different than theirs.”

Not that Mon-El would tell anyone, but that still kept him up at night sometimes. It wasn’t an easy feeling to get used to, having all these new powers that no one, not even himself, quite understood.

“So what’s next? Do you need to do more tests?” he asked.

Alex shook her head. “There are a number of minor triggers for vasovagal syncope that aren’t anything to worry about, at least in humans, and since I couldn’t find any obvious problems there’s no reason to be overly concerned. If you have any more symptoms we’ll reassess.” She touched his shoulder reassuringly. “I’m sure you’re fine.”

Mon-El couldn’t help but worry anyway. His skepticism must have shown on his face, because Winn jumped back into the conversation with the best thing Mon-El had heard since waking up.

“Look on the bright side,” Winn said. “At least you don’t have to miss pizza night tonight?”

“Yes, you’re officially cleared for pizza night,” confirmed Alex. “I’ve got a date with Maggie so I won’t be there, but you guys have fun.”

“Oh, I plan to. A Kotolan _armada_ couldn’t keep me away from pizza night,” Mon-El told her.

~*~

By the time evening finally arrived Mon-El had almost put the unsettling events of lunch out of his mind and was ready to kick back and enjoy the human ritual of pizza night, possibly while imbibing new and exciting combinations of alcohol but _definitely_ while watching peculiar Earth entertainment.

The first sign that pizza night wasn’t going to be all he’d dreamed was when the normally bubbly, enthusiastic Kara didn’t come to the door to greet her guests. When Mon-El, James, and Winn let themselves into Kara’s apartment at her call of, “It’s open!” the three men found her, not in the kitchenette with her hands full as they might have anticipated, but perched at the edge of her couch peering intently at the phone in her hand. She didn’t even look up as James closed the door behind them and they hung up their jackets. Instead, she frowned at her phone and typed out a quick text.

“Is everything okay, Kara?” Winn asked.

Kara sighed, but she smiled when she looked over to her guests. 

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” she said. Her smile dipped. “Just – Lena and I were supposed to get lunch today? But she didn’t show up and she hasn’t answered my texts yet. I was going to see if she wanted to come for pizza night instead, but . . .” Kara shrugged.

“Huh, that doesn’t sound like Lena,” said Mon-El. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t ignore Kara like that intentionally; Mon-El didn’t know Kara’s friend very well but he did know they were close and she always just seemed so _nice_. She’d even helped their work with the DEO a few times. 

“No, it doesn’t,” James agreed. “Has anything like this happened before?”

“Well . . . yes. But it always turned out it had something to do with, you know, her mother.” Kara worried her lip

James frowned in a way Mon-El had come to identify as his Guardian face. “Are you concerned?”

Sighing again, Kara flopped back onto her couch cushions. “Yes. But there’s no sign that anything’s actually _wrong_ \- Lena’s a busy person! - and I don’t want to become one of those heroes who sees trouble everywhere for no reason.”

Winn, silent throughout Kara’s explanation, held his phone out in front of him to reveal a news article from CatCo’s biggest local rival displayed on the screen. “I’d say you have a reason.”

LATEST LUTHOR LOW-DOWN: L-CORP CEO MISSING IN SUSPECTED KIDNAPPING

Kara stood up and grabbed the phone from Winn’s hand. She began scrolling through the article and she, James, and Winn were all talking – questions and possible plans of action, all overlapping each other in their eagerness to tackle this new crisis - and Mon-El wasn’t following any of it.

He felt like the bottom had fallen out of his stomach.

“We need to get back to the DEO,” Mon-El blurted. Loudly. The others stopped their brainstorming and looked at him. “When we decide what to do, that’s where we’ll need to be, right? So, let’s _go_.”

It didn’t take much convincing. They passed the pizza guy on the way out, the smell of their dinner wafting down the hallway after them.

~*~

A physical search hadn’t amounted to much, Lena’s office empty and undisturbed, her apartment quiet. Mon-El had never been there before but there was something inviting about it, comforting – nothing like he would have anticipated if it was the scene of a crime. It took some persuasion but eventually Kara found them a lead through Lillian; there were certain parties, apparently, who would go to any lengths necessary to get particular secrets from a Luthor. Lillian wasn’t worried. She said she knew Lena was too attached to her plan to redeem the Luthor name to give in and the secrets, apparently, were what Lillian really cared about. With families like these Mon-El almost felt like he was back on Daxam.

In the end they’d realized the easiest way to locate Lena was one Mon-El couldn’t even help with: cross-referencing property records with an energy signature that was connected to the kidnappers in a way Mon-El hadn’t quite followed. It was probably important, but once it was clear he had to wait on stand-by Mon-El was too frustrated to pay attention. Winn assured him he was eliminating possibilities every second, but to Mon-El it still felt like they were standing still. Not literally, of course, because Mon-El couldn’t stop pacing the DEO control room behind Winn while the other man ran his search.

“Are you sure there isn’t any way to speed this up?” Mon-El asked, not for the first time.

Winn spun his chair around but before he could answer or Mon-El could berate him for pausing the search, J’onn held up a hand.

“Continue your work, Mr. Schott, I’ll handle this,” he said. Winn turned back to the computer console and J’onn pulled Mon-El a few feet away. “He would work faster without you interrupting him, you know.”

Despite seeing the logic in J’onn’s words, Mon-El bristled. “Lena - ”

“We’re all anxious to find Ms. Luthor,” said J’onn. “Kara’s worried sick, but she has it under control. Is there something else – Mon-El!”

Screaming, Mon-El grabbed at his left arm. The pain wiped his mind blank – he couldn’t think, he couldn’t hear, he could only feel the pain radiating from just below his elbow. He fell to his knees for the second time in as many days, cradling his arm tightly against his chest, but nothing eased the pain. It felt like his arm had been snapped in half. Except that shouldn’t be able to happen under Earth’s yellow sun.

Almost as suddenly as the pain had appeared, it faded away until it was completely gone. Winded and shaky, Mon-El let Kara help him back up to his feet.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Staring at his arm, Mon-El crinkled his brow. “It – it stopped. I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened . . .” He looked up and saw that Winn had stood up from the console. “Winn! Lena needs your help more than I do!”

Winn started at the force of Mon-El’s words. Mon-El couldn’t find it in himself to feel bad for snapping; he was just satisfied to see the other man return to looking for Lena. But then his attention was drawn back to his own issue as Alex began poking and prodding at his arm.

“Does this hurt?” Alex asked. She pressed her thumb into the arm where Mon-El had been grasping it in pain. Her grip was gentle at first, but even as she increased the pressure there was no effect. 

Mon-El shook his head. “No.”

Alex frowned and then, to Mon-El’s bafflement, locked eyes with James who was standing a few steps away.

“What is it?” Mon-El asked.

“Has anything like this happened to you before?” James asked. “Any unusual pain, or other feelings, where you couldn’t identify the cause?”

Mon-El didn’t understand how the others could be so concerned about him when he was fine – his arm was fine! – and they were in the middle of a mission to save someone who actually needed it. “Uh, no?” he said.

The typing in the background paused, much to Mon-El’s frustration. “Sure it has,” corrected Winn. Everyone turned to look at him. “Yesterday! Alex, you remember.”

Alex’s eyes widened even as James and Kara looked confused. 

“You think – tranquilizer? It _did_ happen right before Lena missed Kara at lunch,” Alex said. 

Winn nodded. “Exactly!” 

“What are they talking about?” James asked Mon-El.

Mon-El had no idea. “I _fainted_ ,” he explained. “It was weird but it didn’t hurt – look, what does this have to do with Lena? Winn, keep looking!”

Winn did, turning back to the console with a start, but the others were still focussed on whatever fascination Mon-El’s fainting fit held for them.

James tilted his head towards Alex. “Do you think he actually could be?”

“Could be _what_?” Mon-El snapped.

“Lena’s soulmate,” said J’onn.

Mon-El waited moment for that sentence to start making sense. It didn’t.

“Sorry, I’m her what?” he asked. This conversation was just getting stranger. “I must be translating that word wrong, because - ”

Kara shook her head, that soft look on her face she made when he got Earth wrong. “You’re not. There just isn’t a direct parallel from Daxam to translate to – there wasn’t one from Krypton either. It’s actually kind of confusing. Soulmate means a romantic partner but, like, more?”

“More,” repeated Mon-El, flatly. How could he be ‘more’ than romantic with Lena when they barely even knew each other?

“You had arranged marriages on Daxam, didn’t you?” Kara asked. When Mon-El nodded, she continued. “If you think of soulmates like arranged marriages they make a lot more sense.”

Winn made a muffled sound and Alex groaned. “They’re really _not_ same thing, Kara. You’ve been here how long and you still don’t get it? Clark has a soulmate; it’s not something incomprehensible that only humans can understand.”

Kara gave an affronted huff and Mon-El realized, with a frustrated start, that this must be an old argument between the two sisters. He rolled his eyes and stepped in before Kara could make her rebuttal.

“Can we get to the point?”

J’onn crossed his arms. “Earth _is_ the only planet where soulmates occur, as far as we know. Intense emotional connections spontaneously form between individuals, often strangers, which usually causes them to fall in love extremely quickly. Humans believe soulmates are somehow made to be together. And there is, of course, the soulpain, which you’ve experienced.”

“I think I’m translating incorrectly again,” said Mon-El. “Because ‘soulpain’ makes less sense to me than ‘soulmate’.”

“It describes the phenomenon when one soulmate feels something, typically pain, through their connection to the other soulmate,” J’onn explained. 

Alex nodded. “If you are Lena’s soulmate, that means when you fainted you were experiencing the symptoms of her being drugged. I can’t believe I didn’t consider it might be soulpain.”

“Do you mean my arm . . . that pain was coming from Lena?” Mon-El’s blood chilled. “They broke her arm.”

Kara touched his shoulder. “We’re going to save her.”

The sympathy in Kara’s voice was comforting but Mon-El didn’t know how to feel about that. As if Kara, Lena’s actual friend, wasn’t the one who should feel worse right now – scared and worried for someone she actually cared for? Mon-El had barely spoken five words to Lena, yet he couldn’t deny the deep-seated dread he felt knowing Lena was in pain somewhere and how much he wanted it to be _him_ who made her feel better again.

“I’ve got it,” Winn whispered. Kara and Mon-El turned towards the computer console but the others didn’t seem to hear him. Winn spun his chair around. “I’ve got it! I have the address where the kidnappers are _right now_.”

“Well, don’t keep them waiting,” said J’onn. “Let’s move it!”

~*~

Mon-El and Kara burst into the room, Alex and Guardian behind them. It was clear that whatever bigwig had arranged the whole thing wasn’t there doing his own dirty work, because as soon as the goons inside saw three superheroes and a government agent armed to the gills they turned and scattered. No one even bothered to gather up the laptop sitting on a table near their victim, which was open and on and probably held identifying information for Winn to find that would stick everyone in jail even if they managed to flee the scene.

No that that was going to happen.

Kara, Alex, and Guardian pursued the goons in three separate directions but Mon-El only had eyes for Lena. She was strapped to a chair, her arm bandaged in a makeshift sling, and she was unconscious, which Mon-El counted as a stroke of good luck. He had no idea what to say to her and there were more important things to worry about at the moment than whether humans thought, _“Hi, I guess I’m your soulmate?”_ was an appropriate thing to say. 

Now that they were in the same room the soulpain from Lena’s fractured arm was back, but only as a dull ache. It was easy enough to ignore as Mon-El undid her restraints and tried to pick her up without aggravating her injury. Before he could get her outside the building to where the paramedics were waiting, Mon-El felt Lena shift in his arms. Her eyes blinked open and – oh. How had he never noticed how green her eyes were?

“What’s happening?” Lena asked, clearly groggy from pain and sleep. 

Mon-El’s stomach flipped. “It’s all right. You’re going to be fine. We’re – I’m here to save you.”

“Aren’t you . . .?” She crinkled her brow. “You’re Kara’s friend. I never . . . you have blue eyes.”

“You just hold on tight, okay?” Mon-El told her. And she did, nestling her face against his chest.

Despite the dire circumstances, Mon-El could feel a smile tugging at his lips. He still didn’t know Lena any better than he had two days ago – and he wouldn’t be getting to know her until after she saw a doctor because yikes, that arm was starting to hurt again - but when he looked Lena in the eyes and he held her against his body he felt something. Something that he wanted to grab onto and never let go.

Maybe this Earth concept of soulmates made sense after all.


End file.
